A real Ecuatoriano

HELLO TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Okay, be prepared, this is going to be a fatty ol´ letter. It´s been a while since I´ve been able to write a real letter and a lot has happened since then. 

First things first, my man Moses was baptized!!  It was such an awesome experience and it made me so so happy to see him there and make those covenants with our Heavenly Father. I´ll try to attach pictures from the service, it was beautiful. 

Okay so I´m going to try to give a run down of everything that has happened in order for me to be sitting here in this little Cyber cafe in Ecuador. So on June 12th I went to Arizona to visit the Ecuadorian consulate and I got my visa and flew back to Portland that day. I got my travel plans a few days later and learned that I would be flying to Ecuador on June 17th. So on the 17th, I woke up at 3:30am and a senior missionary drove me to the airport.  We went up to check into my flight, and right when I put in my flight number, a box popped up that said "FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELLED."  We called church travel and the airline and figured everything out and got a flight for me the next morning on the 18th. I was actually fine with staying one extra day because I got to say goodbye to a lot of friends that I hadn´t had the chance to the day before. I definitely miss Portland and all the people I met there, but I love Ecuador so much already. Okay so, the morning of the 18th, I woke up at 2:30am and drove to the airport with the same senior missionary and checked in and everything was fine. I flew to Atlanta, Georgia and was there for a good while. I was eating in the food court and a hispanic man came up to me and said, "I see that you are an elder, how can I be a member of your church?" Ahahah it was awesome. I set up a lesson for him with the missionaries in his city in Mexico and then we talked for like 2 hours. It was so cool and I was able to teach a little bit in Spanish, the first time since the MTC. Hopefully it goes well with him. I was reunited with Elder Tall, my MTC companion at the gate and it was great to see him. SO the flight to Ecuador was going great until we were 15 minutes from landing. The pilot came over the speaker and said a volcano near the airport had blown a bunch of ash so we couldn't land. We ended up landing in Panama, refuelling, then flying back to Quito where all was well. We landed at 3am and then drove to the AP´s apartment and slept there. The next morning, we received our companions and areas. I am serving in La Concordia, an area closer to the coast. It´s fairly new to the mission, only about 8 months old. It is also the hottest and most humid area in the mission, which is a lot of fun. My companion is Elder Azabache, from Trujillo, Peru. He´s awesome and a really good missionary and I love him already.

Some experiences from this week: I got to give a blessing in Spanish yesterday. My Spanish is still pretty rough and my vocabulary is really limited, but I think it went okay. 

Contacting people here is SO EASY compared to Portland. The other night we went out tracting for a little bit and every single door we knocked on set up a return appointment with us. Only two of the 8 have actually happened, but we have 5 new investagators from it. 

I got to teach the Retoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time in Spanish. I know this one the best so I felt decently comfortable with it. I was able to recite the first vision and the spirit was so strong. The family seemed interested and touched, hopefully something will work out with them. 

One of the biggest things I have learned during this transition is that I am doing the same work here that I was doing in Portland. I mean sure, it´s a different country and different language and different process, but the work is still exactly the same: inviting others to come unto Jesus Christ. It´s a really comforting thought when things get hard or when I feel discouraged. 

I only have 2 hours a week now to read and respond to all the emails I receive, so it is less likely that I will be able to respond to you now. Please don´t stop writing though, I always look forward to hearing from everyone. Thank you to all who sent me birthday wishes, I really appreciate it!

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Elder Spangler

Bienvenidos!!

Dear Brother and Sister Spangler,

We are letting you know that your son has arrived safely to the Quito Ecuador Mission.  We can tell that he is a wonderful young man and we are so happy that he has joined our army of missionaries.  He was assigned a trainer yesterday, Elder Azabache, who is a great missionary and who will train your son well.  You will hear more from him next Monday, his P-day.  We are excited to be serving with your son.

We would like to introduce ourselves.  We have been serving as President and wife since July 1st of 2017.  We have five children - two married, one who just returned from a mission in Texas, and our youngest two (ages 16 and 18) are here with us in Ecuador.

Attached you will find pictures of your son's arrival, with the other new missionaries, with us and with his new trainer.  

We thank you for sharing your son and we know that the Lord will bless him and your family for his service.   

Sincerely, 

President and Sister Barlow

VIVA LA VISA

HELLO ALL

I have absolutely no time because I am about to board a plane to go to Phoenix to get my VISA.  I'll fly back to Portland tomorrow night and then will most likely be on my way to Ecuador next week. I am super excited and can't wait to get out there, I'll go more into detail next week!  Hope everyone has a great week!  Love you all!

Elder Spangler

Added note from Mom:  We got this picture the following day informing us that he did indeed have his Visa in hand!  So excited for him!

I do the Haka and meet Elder Uchtdorf

Hello my friends and family!  This week was honestly one of the coolest weeks ever, I got to be a part of so many once in a lifetime experiences and it was just so awesome. 

Something really cool about Portland is that the world headquarters of Nike is right in the suburbs, it's like 10 minutes away from my apartment.  What's even cooler is that there's a TON of Polynesian people that work there, and a lot of them are members of the church. This week was the beginning of the Polynesian network at Nike and we got to be a part of it. Last Thursday, Elder Lui and I went to the Nike campus and played touch rugby with a bunch of guys, it was super fun.  When we were leaving, a brother in one of the wards in the stake came up and said "hey elders, this afternoon at 3 we're going to be learning how to do the Haka and we're going to perform it at the 7 on 7 Rugby touch tournament tomorrow, are you guys in?"  We figured this would be a really good way to meet a lot of the Polynesian members of the community, so we said yes.  We went to the practice and learned how to do the Haka, and let me just say, it's not easy hahaha.  The words and movements together are just way different than what I am used to so it took a while for me to get it down.  Actually I never got it down.  The morning after the practice, we dropped Elder Marcum off with some other elders because he was sick, and Elder Lui and I went to Nike again.  We helped set up and then started the big opening ceremony.  They did a kava ceremony and then we got up and did the Haka.  First off, only 7 of us got up to perform it so we were already small in numbers.  Second, there were about 150-200 people there so we had to be loud enough to let them all hear. The first maybe 30 seconds went really well, but then once we got to the part with a lot of words, literally all of us faltered and it went so quiet hahaha.  Elder Lui already knew the chant and another guy who knew it before too pretty much dragged us through the end of it.  They did great though, it was impressive.  It was a really cool experience though, I was really glad to be a part of it.  We played rugby for a while after and it was so much fun, it's a really cool sport. 

We got to meet with Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf this week!  Elder Uchtdorf is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who are the main leaders of the church.  He came and talked with all of the missionaries and shared some really cool, powerful stuff.  The spirit was so strong right when he walked into the room.  I shook his hand and he looked me in the eyes and said "thank you for your service as a missionary" and right then I felt the spirit testify to me that this man was called by God to direct the members of the church.  It was a really cool witness to receive and the spirit was just really strong the whole meeting.  He talked a lot about personal conversion and how we need to make sure we are committed to the gospel and not doing things halfheartedly.  I'm trying to do better with that and I would invite you all to do the same. 

Okay Moses is seriously the most prepared for the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's insane.  He takes notes the whole time during our lessons and it's so cool. I'm just like "woah he's writing down something that I said because it's important to him."  We taught him twice this week and he also came to church.  His questions are so good and he explains concepts of the gospel better than I do. I'm just still blown away that the fact that I prayed with faith for someone to baptize before I left, caused Moses to literally fall into our laps.  He's so awesome.  On Sunday he took a ton of notes and thanked every person who bore their testimony and got to know them.  He really is just such an awesome guy and I'm really excited for his baptism on the 15th. 

Hmm okay so this week I studied a lot about diligence and how we can stay focused and motivated because sometimes it's hard to do that as a missionary haha. I found a scripture from the bible that I really liked and I think it can apply to everyone.  It's from 2 Timothy 4:7 and it says,  "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:"  I want to be able to say this verse aloud to myself at the end of every day, every week, every month, my mission, literally at any end.  I want to say it with complete confidence knowing that it is true.  It takes a lot of work to be able to give a full effort, so whenever you feel discouraged or disheartened, remember the end goal you're working towards.  Remember what it took to get to reach the point you're at now and focus on what it takes to reach the end.  I think that's definitely something I need to improve on and if you feel like you could as well, take some time to remember and focus on what you've done and are doing. 

Remember last week when I played basketball and I shot so bad and only made one 3-pointer?  Well this week was the complete opposite.  I was draining 3's from Steph Curry range and was totally on fire.  The funny thing was if I didn't swish it, I airballed it.  There was no in between.  Everyone was so surprised with my new found shooting ability and they were all hyping me up it was really funny.  Sports are a lot more fun to play when you actually perform well haha. 

Well folks, that's all for this week.  I hope all of you have a great week and recognize the hand of God in your life, He's there and He's helping, even if it doesn't feel like it.  Love you all!

Elder Spangler